UK office building dubbed the country’s greenest

The Wessex water operations centre near Bath in the UK has been called the greenest office building in the country, consuming less than a third of the energy required to power a standard office headquarters.

According to the Architects Journal, the building, which was designed by architect Bennetts Associates, received the highest ever score in the BREEAM 98 excellent rating for a commercial office building. BREEM (the BRE environmental assessment methodology) is a tool that allows the owners, users and designers of a building to review and improve environmental performance throughout its life.

The design brief for the Wessex Water building required it to be an exemplar of environmentally sensitive architecture with an annual energy consumption of 80-100kWh/sq m, signficantly less than the current best practice of 150kWh/sq m and far lower than the 300-400kWh/sq m norm for office headquarters.

The 10,000sq m building is E shaped in plan with three parallel wings of flexible, open-plan office accommodation linked by an enclosed ‘street’ which contains the reception space, meeting areas, a library and café. The three office wings enclose two sheltered courtyards where water and sculptural landscaping help freshen the air before it is drawn in through the office windows.

Environmental initiatives incorporated into the building include: 95 percent of toilet flushes are fed from a rainwater recycling system; pre-cast exposed concrete soffits were built using 50 percent less concrete than equivalent in situ construction techniques and 70 percent of all waste was segregated for recycling on site with a net saving of $A41,290. The building’s east-west orientation aids antural ventilation and lighting and minimises solar heat gain from high summer sun while exposed concrete thermal mass absorbs heat and avoids the use of artificial cooling in the offices. Generous floor to ceiling height enhances the effect of natural ventilation and day lighting.

Source: Building Products News.